506 



UNGULATES. 



of the herd ; and it was noticed that a large antelope kept watch and gave the alarm 

 on our appearance. They are rarely found outside the forest, preferring it to the 

 open plain, which is generally bare of grass ; or they frequent a country with 

 clumps of dense brushwood, or with out-crops of granite, around which they get 

 abundant food ; and they were never seen far from running water and hills. Their 

 breeding-season was determined by goats following their mothers in the month of 

 January, and by the shrill calls we heard, which came, I presume, from the goats. 

 The first time I heard their call, I mistook it for that of a bird, and could scarcely 

 be persuaded till I heard the decided donkey -notes following the shriller sounds. 

 They showed much sympathy when a comrade was wounded, lingering with the 



Quagga. 



GRAVY'S ZEBRA. (From Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc., 1882.) 



wounded at the risk of their lives ; they mingled with our laden donkeys one day 

 on the marsh." These zebras are found at elevations varying from two hundred up 

 to two or three thousand feet above the sea. 



The quagga or couagga (E. quagga), so far as colour is con- 

 cerned, forms a connecting link between the zebras and the asses ; 

 but in its short ears, and the extent to which the tail is haired, approximates to 

 the horse. In height it stands about the same as the true zebra ; in colour the 

 upper parts are of a light reddish brown, with the head, neck, and front half of 

 the body marked with irregular chocolate-brown stripes, gradually becoming 

 fainter, until they are quite lost on the hind-quarters. There is a dark stripe 

 running down the back on to the upper part of the tail; but the rest of the 

 tail, together with the under-parts, the inner sides of the thighs, and the legs, 

 are white. 



